Category Archives: English

Remembering The Dead

In most of Europe and many Christian countries,  November 1 (or the first Sunday after Pentecost, in Eastern Christianity) is a quiet holiday, known as “All Saints Day“, “Allerheiligen”, “All Hallows” or “Hallowmas”. The tradition can be traced back to the 8th Century.

Growing up, I never really cared for it much, except that it was of course a legal bank holiday, and all schools were closed. Today, since I have known a long list of people who have passed, I find the tradition quite beautiful. In many areas in Europe, people visit cemeteries and place lit candles and flowers on the graves of their loved ones. After dark, the entire cemetery may be bathed in the warm shine of thousands of candles.

Death is always a most vexing concept, isn’t it?

Yesterday, while visiting a “haunted” house for Halloween, I heard a wonderful poem by Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886).

(Note: Dickinson left several versions of this poem, and like many others, it probably did not have a title. An alternate version is posted here).

 

 

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labour, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then ’tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward eternity.

 

PS: A place I’d like to visit someday: The Emily Dickinson Museum

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Halloween 2011 – Mysterious Journeys

At this time of the year, the barrier between the physical world and the other dimensions of the netherworld is said to become porous. For those who seek them, hidden gateways open the possibility for passage from one world to another. Mysterious journeys in both directions may be undertaken. Enjoy Halloween. And return safely to your respective worlds.

(Click images to enlarge)

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Fired: Jim Ladd, America’s Last Unrestricted Radio DJ

As a result of an industry shakeup and a series of corporate mergers and acquisitions in the American media landscape, legendary Los Angeles radio DJ veteran Jim Ladd has been fired from his post at KLOS (95.5 FM). Ladd was the last mainstream DJ in America who had complete control over the music he played.

In the North American radio world, it has become common to generate playlists by computer algorithms. The software tracks programming, marketing and demographic trending data. In essence, this means that most on-air personnel has little or no creative choice left, but must pick from a programming list generated by a corporate computer system and designed to please the advertisers.

Explanation for those of you not connected to the media industry: commercial broadcasting in America views programming and creative personnel as cost of doing business. Their only purpose is to make viewers and listeners stick around for the commercials, which is the real product the industry is selling. And in case you are wondering why American commercial stations tend to play the same music tracks over and over: the computer generates playlists designed to attract a specific target audience, because specifically targeted commercials are more attractive to advertisers, and therefore command higher prices.

Since the fall of FCC restrictions that once existed to preserve diverse and independent ownership of commercial radio stations, a huge consolidation wave has set in. Today, commercial stations are usually owned by larger multi-media corporations.

Case in point: KLOS was owned by Nevada based Citadel Broadcasting (which also owned KABC), which in turn was just taken over by Cumulus Media, headquarted in Atlanta, GA.

The Los Angeles area is the largest radio market in the United States.

My take: The bean counters running commercial media conglomerates are killing network TV and terrestrial radio with their blatant lack of understanding for emerging technologies. There is now a whole new generation of people completely married to the Internet and to their mobile devices.

I could, for example, download a BBC news program or a program on Chinese opera into my iPhone, then listen to it on my car stereo on the way to work. Or, with wireless Internet, I could stream tens of thousands of radio programs from all over the world — on my phone. At home, I could do the same over my WiFi network. There are even dedicated Internet radio sets which plug into an Internet router (or connect to a WiFi network) instead of a regular antenna. (For example: http://reviews.cnet.com/best-wifi-radios/

With all these options, why should I listen to an impersonal, bland computerized playlist and unappealing commercials from a local, terrestrial broadcaster who plays the same tracks over and over? (If I like these tracks, I probably have them in my iTunes already).

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Japan’s “Spherical Flying Machine”

I recently wrote a magazine article about civilian uses for unmanned aerial vehicles or “drones”. Here is an amazing machine which had not yet emerged at the time we went to print.

Developed for Japan’s Ministry of Defense, this miniature “spherical flying machine” can hover and fly in all directions. It is so light and small that it can operate indoors. Once airborne, it is stabilized by gyroscopes.

Best of all: it is made from commercially available parts, which cost about $1,400.

Potential uses: for inspecting and guarding the interior of buildings and facilities, and for law enforcement.

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Quoting Steve Jobs

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.”

“Design is not just what it looks like. Design is how it works.”

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to be bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.”

“You can’t just ask customer what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

“My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys that kept each other’s negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts.”

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Visiting Mount Palomar

Last weekend I was part of a group making a visit to the Mount Palomar Observatory.

When I was in school (voraciously sucking up astronomy books), Mount Palomar seemed to me like a place of magic and wonder. From its opening in 1949, and until 1992/93, the giant 5.1 m (200 inch) Hale Telescope was the largest and most important telescope in the world. (Actually, there was a larger Soviet telescope of a later design, but it is often omitted because it never functioned quite well).

The compound on the Southern California mountaintop also encompasses several smaller telescopes. Together, they account for most of the groundbreaking discoveries in the entire history of astronomy.

Here are some pictures. (Click to enlarge).

In front of the Hale Telescope dome, Mount Palomar. From left to right: Jed Laderman, Dave Yantis, Robert Lozano, Reinhard Kargl.

Standing under the massive, 200 inch primary mirror of the Hale Telescope.

Looking up to the secondary mirror, toward the top of the dome. In the old days, this is where the observer would have sat in a cage all night long, handling photographic materials. Today, the instruments are photo-electronic. Human observers no longer ride the elevator to the top).

The old control panel, preserved in a perfect vintage look. Doesn't it seem like something from Star Trek? (Today, the telescope operator sits in a heated cabin, insulated from the dome interior. This being on a mountain top, it gets extremely cold in the winter).

View from the Hale dome's circular catwalk. In the distance is the dome of the historic 18 inch Schmidt telescope. Beginning in the 1930s, Fritz Zwicky did his first surveys of supernovae here. The dome is no longer in use today.

More on Fritz Zwicky and the 18 inch Schmidt telescope.

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Soyuz Launch System at ESA-Spaceport

The Russian Soyuz launch system is now also operating from the European space launch facilities in French Guyana. To the Russians, this location offers a number of advantages.

Located close to the equator, the ESA spaceport can make better use of the Earth’s rotational speed, which is higher at the equator and translates into fuel savings (or performance gains). Secondly, Russia’s main launch sites were built during Soviet times and are now located outside of Russia. (As a result, Russia has been pressured into paying high rent for its continued use of the facilities). And finally, western lawmakers have been lobbied to impose export restrictions on the number of Western satellites shipped for launching from Soviet successor states and China. Although these restrictions and tariffs have been somewhat relaxed lately, commercial launches from the ESA spaceport might avoid the issue altogether.

What ESA and Arianespace stand to gain from the agreement with Russia is not completely clear to me. Certainly, Soyuz will compete against Europe’s Ariane 5 in some aspects. On the other hand, there can be no question that more competition and the removal of artificial trade barriers will be good for spaceflight in general. Perhaps the market will grow so fast that in the end, everyone gets to benefit.

Here is a fascinating time lapse video showing how the Soyuz system works. (It is very different to Western systems).

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For a larger version of this video, click this link.

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